my diet 700 to 800 cals

i only eat about 700 to 800 cals a day. i am wondering if this is enough. a example of my diet is breakfast a large grapefruit both pieces. lunch is a cucumber and tomatoe salad no dressing. dinner is a 3oz serving of meat and a small steamed veggi. if i fell like a snack(not mormally a snack size fat free popcorn) i have been eating like this since jan 1st and have lossed 20 pounds. i fell full after eating this and fell i cant eat any thing else. should i be eating more?

700-800 cals is one of those questionable zones.... most self-monitoring diets will not advice you to go below 1200 cal. and even fewer below 1000 cals.

The Dr. Bernstine diet (which is not self monitored) uses 700 calories per day, but is supplemented by injected vitamins.

Generally it isn't bad to have one or two low-cal days, as long as you are feeling well, but it shouldn't be a pattern.

If you find youself going much below this level, it will not be healthy long term and you would be in very real risk of putting your body into starvation mode which encouarges fat storage instead of fat loss.

There's a whole bunch of long term bad health side-effects of being in starvation mode long term I think I've posted them on a few threads now.

Generally monitor how you feel, and going up to 1000 cal per day if you can will probably not hinder your weight loss.

YOU SHOULD NOT DROP BELOW 1300 calories a day. That is the least amount usually it is 1500. This is because you body will go into what we call STARVATION MODE this means for you your matabolic rate will drop meaning your body will start storeing more fat inorder to survive TRANSLATION you will not loss weight just get more fat. My suggestion is to fit more protein into your diet such as Chicken, tuna, protein shakes, anything to build that muscle and not fat. Dropping that many calories is not heathly way to loss and it will make you benge eat and we all know what that does. It gets you off track and in the end you will yo yo and that's very unhealthly. A big breafest within guildlines, medium lunch, and a light dinner before 7 is what I suggest to you. If you have any other questions about what I wrote let me know.
Christina

I think your calorie intake is TOO LOW! Are you female? At this point... over 1 lb a day you are slowly starving your body and probably tricking it into starvation mode..... this might affect your periods and in extreme cases where this sort of behavior continues it can affect your reproductive organs... I had a close friend who was anorexic for years... her diet probably was close to yours and between passing out etc in high school she has just found out that she is unable to have children from yrs of reproductive strain. (She's 26 now) What was your starting weight?? 20 lbs is a lot off of any frame... I suggest eating more protein and more in general! I'm not even sure that a grapefruit, tomatoes, cucumbers and the rest will even get you to 700-800!!

Hopefully we can all continue to give you support and healthy ways to keep the weight off! We are all here to help you!

I really have to agree! I went to a diet doctor and even they made it clear in no uncertain terms NOT to go below 1000 a day and prefferably to stay about 1200 - 1400 a day. If you do your body will start to store and your metabolism will slow as earlier stated. We all want to lose weight but what good is it going to do if you gain it all back or your unhealthy because of it.

Slower is better and even at 1400 - 1500 calories a day you will loose weight! I have been staying at about 1300 - 1400 a day, blowing it on Saturday with going out to dinner and drinks, not exercising at all and I still lost 8 lbs in 10 days!

I realize that I just started and it comes off quicker at the beginning and I do have at least 50 more lbs to go but I am very pleased!

I am a nurse as well have battled anorexia for many years now, I joined this diet thing to keep track of how much I was eating and maintain my healthy weight. This way at the end of the day I know if I have not eatin enough. The definition of an eating disorder is someone who eats less than 1000 cals per day for an extended period of time. Remember your body needs energy at the end of the day just to sleep, so if you eat less than 1000 cals and burn off 2500 cals a day you have no energy source left at the end of the day.

I agree with all the posts.............Tat please donot starve yourselves. Just read the posts above as they make somuch sense. I am not as educated as they are and I can tell you one thing..........Starving yourself is daingerious. Please Please Please see you doctor talk to him or her.....Ask them to show you what a healthy diet looks like.

It's great that you are eating grapefruit as this is one food that is overlooked by lot of people. If I may suggest.....For breakfast have your grapefruit (by all means). Add a soft boiled egg and toast (cut them up in soldiers if you wish). For lunch have the salad vegies but add some protein there....like the post above suggested. For dinner have more protein......Donot starve your self for goodness sake........

ps the post above talked about your periods (if your a woman) hey that is a real risk of loosing (let you in on a little secret) mine has changed so much that I am worried.....But after reading the post it made sense......I am perhaps not eating enough. Sometimes i go below 1000 calories not often, but that may be the reason for non arraval of the dreaded curse. No im not preggy....I cant be.

Please stay healthy and come to us whenever youhave a problem........suzzi

thanks all for your support in this matter. i was 210 when i started logging my cals.(jan 1st) being overweight since my first child was born (18 years ago) i am trying really hard to lose the weight. maybe trying to hard. i will try to bring my cals up to at least 1000 per day. again thanks

I can post from experience on this topic. At the end of June 2005 I was at 258 lbs. I'm a 5'8" 27 yr old male. I was sick and tired of the sore back, muscles and no energy so I went on a "crash diet". No breakfast, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, with pretzles for lunch, and popcorn or something light for supper. I also had 3-4 glasses of milk each day. That put me right around 800 or so calories a day. I lost 58 pounds right before Labor Day weekend. I was also using my Nordic track 3-4 times a week for 30-40 minutes each workout. Then it happend. I was hiking with some friends while camping Labor Day weekend and I passed out!!!! They said I was out for 5-10 seconds or so, but it sure opened my eyes. While I still have days where I only have 800 or so calories, I try to hit 1500 per day. I'm now at 175 pounds with a goal of 160.

Take it from someone recoving from anorexcia, you are too low for someone who doesnt have it! my calorie intake is the same as yours, from 600-800. I know how you feel that you eat something very small, something most people would call a light lunch or even snack, and you feel full. This is from getting used to your small portion size. You kneed to start incressing your intake of these foods so your stomach can streach (no that doesnt mean getting fat). Its like when a large person who is used to large Cheasecake Factory portions and are trying to louse weight, must reduce the size of their portions even if they still feel hungery. And streaching your stomach is hard (TRUST ME!!!!!) and at first you might not want to, but you should if you eat under 1,000 calories, you'll keep lousing weight.

Before I came to this site I was eating around 400-600 cals a day and excersized an average of 30min a day. I lost about 10lbs over a months time. Now that I'm on this site I've been eating about 600-1000 a day, and I'm still exercising around 30min a day (many times longer).

But since doing that I've stopped losing weight, and I've been gradually GAINING weight. I've gained 2lbs in the past two weeks. Not a tremendous about of gain, but a steady gain none the less (not just water weight). I'm really tempted to cut back on the amount of calories that I eat because that seems to be the only way to lose weight. I wasn't fainting or anything, in fact I was able to keep up a rather strenuous work out program.

chances are you put yourself into conservation or "starvation" mode on that low of a calorie restriction - very unhealthy. As you work to build up to a healthy caloric intake your body's metabolism is going to have to readjust. When you restrict calories, your body goes into survival mode and will store as many calories as it can as fat. When you drop calories to that low of a level you will sabotage yourself every time.

You will have to face some initial weight gain as you re-regulate your metabolism through a healthy diet. Once you have put yourself back up to the caloric intake you need, there are things you can do to keep your metabolism running more efficiently. If your maintenance calories are say 1800... just for an example. On some days you would lower your calories to say the 12-1400 range for a few days, then the next few days up them a little to 15-1700 and then back down. This keeps your metabolism "always guessing" so to speak and your metabolism will not go into conservation mode that way. You'll still lose weight and you will do it in a safe and healthy manner. If you starve yourself you might lose weight initially, but it will be a rude awakening when you have to eat normally again to sustain life and health.

Well my "Allowence" thing under the tools says that I should eat 1300 cals a day in order to lose 10lbs by May (which seems like a VERY long time!). So if I mix it up between 1000 and 1300 I should be ok? According to my "Expendatures" I only burn 2076 cals a day, so I can't imagine eating more than 1300 and still losing weight.

I think it's because I'm so tiny. I'm only five feet, and very small framed/boned, so I think that's why I don't burn many calories...

burning 2076 isn't that "small"... but I'd go more of anywhere from 1,000-1,500 switch it up. That's what i do... I personally aim for 1,000-1,100... but somedays I'll get like 900 but the next day i'll try for 1,100 or so just to try and keep a nice weekly average, mixed with some exercise and I've been doing pretty well about 2lbs within 7 days :)

me123 I am only 5'2 and extra small framed. (To give you an idea of how small boned I am I wear a size 4 ring and 5&1/2-6 shoe) ;)

In order to lose a pound a week you need to eat 500 calories less than what you burn in a day to lose 1 lb a week. It is better to have a slow weight loss as it is more likely to stay off. I hear you on being a small person, it seems really hard to me at times because other people at my current weight look "wow" and I still have a lot of flabby parts ;). I'm doing slow but steady though because this is a "lifestyle modification program" :).

If you feel good at 1300 ok, but 1,000 is quite low. It also depends what you eat within those calories too because you need to be sure you are getting proper nutrients. Our body frame has no effect on how fast/slow our metabolisms are. It's all about the nutrition you feed your body and making sure you are getting enough calories to burn your fat reserves and not go into conservation mode. At 1,000 calories consistently that might become a problem for you.

I know what worked for me was the variations. I up my calories a bit for a few days then reduce them back for a few days back and forth like that and it keeps my metabolism regulated. Maybe something similar would work for you?

You said you thought that because you are younger you can eat less calories, when in fact you need to eat more because your motabolism is still at its fastest! Also, i hightly do not recomend cutting back on your calories even more. When you weighed yourself and had gained the 2 pounds back could have just been because of the time of day you weighed and what you were wearing. To get a proper and correct weight, you should weigh yourself in the morning before you have aten (or have not aten in the past 4 hours) tooken a shower at least 6 hours before and should only have your skin or undergarndments on. Try weighing like that and see if you still have gained weight!